Monthly Archives: February 2011

Tim Cook talks software SIMs and a cheaper iPhone

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

Tim Cook has spoken of the need to bring the iPhone to everyone and ‘not just the rich’. This suggests a prepaid lower priced iPhone which is of course good news. Not so good news comes from his thoughts that ‘Apple would not let carriers dictate terms’ which sounds like a veiled reference to Software SIMs. Noooooooooooooooo!!!!

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I don’t hate Macs, but they do give me a syncing feeling

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

Charlie Brooker doesn’t tend to hold back when it comes to stating an opinion and I don’t hate Macs, but they do give me a syncing feeling is no exception. Expecting some divided opinions on this one…

“Apple’s “sync” bullshit is a deception, which pretends to be making your life easier, when it’s actually all about wresting control from you. If you could freely transfer any file you wanted onto your gadget, Apple might conceivably lose out on a few molecules of gold. So rather than risk that, they’ll choose – every single time – to restrict your options, without so much as blinking.

Sure, you can get around the irritating sync-issue, but doing so requires a degree of faff and brainwork, like solving the famous logic problem about ferrying a load of foxes and chickens across a river without it all ending in feathers and death. And even if you find it easy, it’s a problem Apple don’t want you to solve. They want you to give up and go back to dumbly stroking that shiny screen, pausing intermittently to wipe the drool from your chin.”

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iOS notifications finally sorted

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

Oh how I hate the iOS notifications system. It gets in the way more times than I care to count and so the mobilenotifier solution could be the answer to my prayers. It only works on jailbroken devices at this time, but does seem to provide a more elegant solution than the current setup from Apple. How I just need to decide if I want to jailbreak my iPhone…

The video below shows how well it works-

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Gmail problems for thousands

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

It’s been one of those days. Google has advised that 0.08% of Gmail users will have lost access to their accounts due to a bug. It is thought that some users will have lost all of their data, but Google is currently advising that all data will be recovered. You can check the current status of the fault here.

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Vodafone UK network down for thousands

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

There is a major fault causing network disruption for millions of UK Vodafone customers at this time. The only real formal notice has come via the support forums- “We had a break in last night at one of our technical facilities which resulted in damage done to some of our equipment. This means that some customers may be experiencing temporary loss of voice, sms and internet services. We are working quickly to restore these and will be back to normal as soon as we can. There has been no impact on the privacy of customers’ data.”

Everyone I know with Vodafone has no signal at all at the moment, included Peter who let me know about the problem. Quite fortunate that I moved to 3 last week I guess…

UPDATE: It appears that the problem is affecting thousands, not millions, along the M4 corridor.

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QOTD: Your data speed?

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

How good is your data speed at home and on your phone? Mine is quicker on my iPhone 4 through 3 than my home broadband is which is somewhat annoying…

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Devil’s Advocate: Children and mobile phones

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

Today’s motion is that it is fine for a 10 year old child to own a mobile phone

Janine says children should not own mobile phones

I firmly believe that children should not own mobiles until they are at least 15 year’s old. I see so many children spending all day texting and playing games on their phones when they should be playing with friends and doing intellectual things like learning. My husband is a teacher and mobiles are a constant distraction for pupils and teachers and his school has now banned them from class. He says that at break time he sees hoards of children sitting around texting and playing games. They do not play with each other or interact because they are staring at their phones all day long. 15 year’s old and no earlier!

Shaun says children should own mobile phones

My 10 year old son has his own mobile phone. It is a Sony Ericsson K800i and he has owned it for over a year now. It costs me £5 a month to ensure he has a handful of texts and voice calls at his disposal and is worth every penny in my book. He is a very sensible child anyway which skews my view somewhat- he always wears his cycle helmet even though many of his friends don’t and he wears adequate protection when skateboarding, and he always asks me or his Mother if he can do something that he is unsure of. He doesn’t use the phone at this time for texting his friends or making calls, but will text home to say where he is when he goes for bike rides with his friends. He always calls to say if he will be late and he has phoned me to come pick him up because his tyre went flat on the bike. £5 a month to have the peace of mind that my son is safe? A huge bargain and we will do what we can to ensure he uses his phone responsibly in the future. Phones are here now, just as games consoles and so many other new inventions are and you can’t stand in the way of that.

Please take a moment to vote in the poll below- the result will be published tomorrow.

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LMP Bluetooth Keypad Review or Look Ma, No Wires

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

When I got my 13″ MacBook Pro, I knew it was going to spend much of its life sitting on my desk hooked up to an 24″ external monitor with an external keyboard. I got the laptop for portability, but when I’m not porting, I’m sitting at my desk. I’m not like my wife who sits in a reclining chair with her laptop on her lap, along with one or two cats.

Since I wanted a full keyboard including a numeric keypad, I bought the Apple wired keyboard. At the time I had a bluetooth Mighty Mouse. I quite liked the Apple keyboard but I hated the wire. I’m sure someone is saying “It’s only a wire” and they’d have a point. But it did get in the way of the various things I have under the monitor. Sure I could put them elsewhere, but there are a number of things I like to have right in front of me either because I use them all the time or because I want to constantly remind myself of something.

I looked at the Apple wireless keyboard, but it’s like the laptop keyboard with no numeric keypad. So I tried a 3rd party full bluetooth keyboard. For a while I was satisfied. It felt good, although not as good as the Apple keyboard, and had all of the keys I’d ever need. Unfortunately, whenever it went to sleep for power saving, it took at least 5 seconds to wake up after pressing a key. Around this time I also got a Magic Mouse, which was always available.

After a number of months, I broke down and decided to try the Apple wireless keyboard to see how much I’d miss the extra keys. I figured I could always return it if I hated it. But it was like coming home. It felt great. It didn’t take up as much desk room. And it was instantly available. So I put up with entering numbers using the top row. It’s not too bad for a number here and there, but it is a pain when I’m balancing bank accounts and there are lots of number entries.

Then I saw a preview for the LMP Bluetooth Numeric Keypad. Now I’ve seen other numeric keypads, but they were always significantly bigger than the Apple keyboard and were loose. The LMP looked like an extension of the Apple keyboard and had an adapter to connect the two. Here’s a diagram.

Not quite the same as the Apple full size wired keyboard but very close. As well, the keys are pretty close to the Apple keys so it feels like it belongs. Using the keys feels very natural.

So it looks good and feels good but how well does it work otherwise. Quite well actually. You get the keypad, the adapter, two AA batteries and an instruction booklet. Construction is plastic, not Aluminum, but it feels reasonably solid. And the adapter is snug on both sides so moving the combination around doesn’t jar anything loose. I mean it’s not screwed in tight, but certainly adequate for the intended usage.

After loading the batteries and powering up, pairing by bluetooth is the same as pairing any other bluetooth keyboard to a Mac. You put the keypad into pairing mode, let the Mac find it, and enter the code displayed. It took me longer to get the batteries in than it did to pair it with my MacBook.

What you get is the standard numeric keypad, the digits 0 to 9, the numeric operators (=, /, *, -, +), a decimal key, and an enter key, plus five function keys *F13-F17), page up, page down, arrow/cursor up, arrow/cursor down, and forward delete.

It did have a slight delay if it was in power save mode, but not as bad as my other bluetooth keyboard. And it’s not a big issue since it’s not used all the time. The other issue is that as is typical with 3rd party bluetooth add-ons, you don’t see the battery charge remaining in the bluetooth menu entries. Both are easy to live with.

One thing I did find was that I was pressing the forward delete key whenever I really wanted the arrow/cursor right key. So I used Keyboard Maestro to change it. The Shortcut Key is defined as the Forward Delete key on the Keypad and the key pressed when that shortcut is used is the arrow/cursor right key on the keyboard. I found it very cool that Keyboard Maestro would take input from one device and output from another.

If you need a wireless numeric keypad for your Apple wireless keyboard, I recommend that you look at this one. I found it here. There may well be other places.

Bob

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Scramble! for iOS

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

It has taken many years, but a decent version of the classic arcade game, Scramble, has finally arrived in the mobile space. Scramble! is not without some small bugs, but is the nearest I have found to recreating the experience I used to feel 30 years ago as I fed 10p after 10p into the arcade machine in our local newsagents. It is still very challenging and the training section is particularly good because it lets you practice each level no matter how far you have got.

At last! A miniature take on a classic arcade game, with all the excitement and compelling gameplay of the bigger screens. Controls have been designed specifically with the iPhone’s touch-screen in mind, making the game easy to get into, yet as difficult as ever to master.

You control a spaceship and must guide it across a scrolling terrain, battling obstacles along the way. The ship is armed with a forward-firing weapon, and bombs; each weapon has its own button. The ship must avoid colliding with the terrain and other enemies, while simultaneously maintaining its limited fuel supply, which diminishes over time. More fuel can be acquired by destroying the green fuel tanks.

The game is divided into six sections, each with a different style of terrain and different obstacles. There is no intermission between each section; the game simply scrolls into the new terrain. Points are awarded based upon the number of seconds of being alive, and on destroying enemies and fuel tanks. In the final section, the player must destroy a “base”. Once this has been accomplished, a flag denoting a completed mission is posted at the bottom right of the screen. The game then continues by returning you to the first section once more, with a slight increase in difficulty.

Needs 3GS or better, doesn’t run smoothly on 3G – please don’t even try it! No iPad-specific version yet, that will come soon.

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COTD: PDA + Phone = smartphone

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

Today’s comment of the day comes from vboelema- “If I had a PDA which wasn’t connected any time and anywhere it would be almost useless.  But if I had a phone without the PDA functions it would be used very little.”

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Kindle gives thriller writer a plot for success – at 71p a shot

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Shaun

Stephen Leather is doing rather well out of selling Kindle eBooks at only £0.71 a time. The full story is at The Guardian, but highlights how self-publishing could follow mobile apps in terms of volumes sold if priced fairly.

Self-publishing has traditionally been a surefire route to obscurity and dismal sales. Now a British thriller writer who sells his novels as ebooks for as little as 70p is proving the naysayers wrong.

Not only does Stephen Leather, Britain’s leading “independent” writer, estimate he has occupied the number one spot on Amazon.co.uk’s Kindle ebook bestseller lists for “90% of the last three months”, he is also selling “somewhere in the region” of 2,000 ebooks a day – and making big profits in the process.

Leather, who celebrated his seventh consecutive week at the top of the Amazon chart with his novella The Basement, about a serial killer in New York, also occupies fourth place with Hard Landing, another thriller, and 11th place with Once Bitten, a vampire novel.

He is one of many authors increasingly turning to ebooks as an alternative way to the top. Capitalising on the popularity of e-readers such as the Kindle, a new generation of writers is bypassing agents and publishers and using the flexible pricing model of ebooks to offer their work directly to the public at rock-bottom prices. Some, like Leather, are achieving huge sales, which, not surprisingly, is striking fear into publishers.

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Angry Farm for BlackBerry: If Angry Birds was stolen…

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Shaun

Angry Birds is not available for BlackBerry. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Smarter Apps has stolen the concept and released Angry Farm which bears too many similarities to be coincidence. If you want the Angry Birds experience grab this one before it gets pulled. Or don’t buy it because that just wouldn’t feel right.

The Farmer is away and the farm has been overrun by an army of hungry foxes.

Help the angry animals fight back to clear the farm of marauding foxes. The angry animals are armed with a catapult and they fly through the air like furious birds before colliding spectacularly with the foxes who are hiding inside protective farm structures.

Each of the angry animals have special properties that you can control to defeat the foxes.

Angry goat flies through the air slamming into foxes and causing hay bales and wooden farm structures to explode.

Angry pig bounces like a super ball of furious rubberized pork demolishing foxes and their hiding places.

Angry cow flies through the air and accelerates to attacking speed when you click the trackpad or touchscreen while the angry cow is in flight.

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QOTD: Phone or PDA?

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Shaun

Simple question today. Is your smartphone a phone first or PDA first? My iPhone 4 is definitely PDA first.

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Slow weekend…

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Shaun

It will be a slow weekend for content on 247 because I am travelling, but the usual levels will be back to normal on Monday. Feel free to add some QOTD ideas to this thread if you have a few spare minutes:)

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Xoom LTE upgrade, Birds coming to Windows Phone, Daily going to Android

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Shaun

The Motorola Xoom can now be bought and brings with it the ability to upgrade to LTE. The only problem is that you have to wait 90 days and then send the device back to be upgraded. Seems like Motorola wanted to get this to market and didn’t worry too much about how silly this all looks.

The 6th April will be a special day for Windows Phone owners. Angry Birds will be arriving on the platform along with Doodle Jump, Plants vs Zombies and a selection of other well known titles. The platform may be moving slowly upwards, but it is indeed moving.

The Daily will be moving away from iOS exclusivity when it is released on Android this Spring. Besides the stability issues and the concerns over subscription payments, it is a surprise to see it cross-platform so quickly.

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